Hi, I’m Andrew. Nice to meet you, and I’m glad you’re here. Regardless of how you stumbled upon this little corner of the internet, I hope that the topics and ideas I will discuss here can add value to your life. Ultimately, I hope you feel compelled to contribute to the conversation.
What is Shift Upwards?
We can be taking strides each day, big or small, to propel ourselves onwards and upwards to a more satisfying and balanced life.
The thing is, we also have a plethora of priorities, demands, fears, and anxieties corroding our energy on a day-to-day basis.
It’s easy to give these things the power to tilt the balance of day-to-day life out of our favor, especially when they have a tendency to be so relentless. It’s easy to allow these things to drag us down, perpetuating at worst a downward cycle and at best a state of inertia.
Instead of being beat down by all the distractions, we can rise above them. It is an ongoing effort that each and every one of us needs to be aware of and dedicating energy to. This is simply a place you can come to in order to feed your inspiration to do exactly that.
Given the above, the name Shift Upwards fits like a glove. I just realized that rhymes…
That all sounds like some feel-good mumbo jumbo, can you be more specific?
Here are some topics I plan to write about on this blog:
- Mastering finances and paying yourself first (instead of paying yourself last or not at all)
- Incorporating an adaptive approach to work and career (instead of being hopelessly overcome with the stresses and demands of a job)
- Living an intentional, simplified life (instead of making decisions on auto-pilot and later feeling bogged down by them)
- Conquering the fears that prevent us from taking steps forward (instead of freezing in place and accepting the status quo)
Who are you, and what compelled you to start writing about these things?
Up to this point, I’ve taken the path of least resistance in life. This path is certainly well traveled in modern culture – grade school, university degree, career in cubicle nation, ladder to nowhere.
This has afforded me a life of consistent comfort. But comfort, if treated passively, is enough to keep me exactly where I am.
With this comfort has come a persistent lack of fulfillment, which has grown throughout my life in the working world over the last ten years.
From the very beginnings of my career, I felt trapped, and I didn’t know why. I did the only thing I could do: dedicate massive amounts of time and effort to finding the answer. I started to realize that it’s pretty easy (and extremely liberating) to build a lifestyle so that I wasn’t trapped.
As it turns out, a lot of what we feel trapped by is self-imposed.
I felt compelled to start this blog so that I can share some of what I have learned along the way, and surely learn from others who feel inspired to share with me in return.
My goal is to connect with other like-minded people who have had or are having similar struggles, while having an uncanny knack for refusing to accept the status quo.
I’d love for you to join me on the quest for a better life that shatters the mold!
Susan Philipp
Great First post! I can’t wait to see your literary talents put to work. Personally, I would not want this blog to be open to social media. It is for like minded souls like yourself. People who are introspective, brutally honest with themselves, trustworthy and who have great integrity. Thank you for the honor of being included on this maiden voyage. You take 100% responsibility for your life and want others who share that path to engage with you. What a great learning opportunity you are offering your audience. You have accomplished so much to even understand the importance of “paying yourself first”. You feel intuitively the difference between playing it safe, and instead are looking to create a more enjoyable approach to work and career. For open, personal blogs, it offers individuals an unique place to come and discuss keeping our lives real and satisfying. So much that throws me off track, is focusing on insignificant minutia that I make so important, and it is not. I look forward to your inward journey and seeing where you go with it to achieve the goals that matter to you. I applaud your courage and your sensitivity to your higher self and your understanding that you are a work in progress. Embrace it with a childlike sense of wonder and enjoyment. Rediscovering who you really are is a wonderful adventure, so enjoy it. I love that about you.
Andrew
Thank you so much for the kind words and support. I really love what you said. Captures the main reasons I’m doing this!
Susan Philipp
I just subscribed to the blog and an email was sent immediately. You are taking a lot of time to do this right, and it worked beautifully for me. Kudos!!! Before I head off this weekend, I wanted to share a few links that I get a lot. The author is Bob Proctor and I actually went on a cruise that was exclusively with him and his company. The last email was “Pressing the ‘Reset’ Button on Your Goals”. Lots of good free info and online classes. I have a lot of his material but haven’t looked at it in a long time. I tend to accumulate lots of good info but never act on it. Lots of good stuff with Jack Caulfield(Chicken Soup books author) for getting published. I think that it is valuable information.
Matthew
I’m happy you found the courage to piece something like this together and share it with us. I know I still have a lot to experience and learn in life and I’m blessed to have older siblings like you that I can look up to and get advice from. I think the best thing we can do as humans is to teach one another and give each other love and comfort. A blog like this can be very powerful and offer others a renewed sense of hope and faith. Clearly that is your intent, and I hope you go through with this blog because I think you will find a lot of satisfaction in helping others. And you will undoubtedly learn a lot from others as well. So good luck to you brotha. I will will be a faithful and regular reader if you continue this, as I hope you do. And I hope to offer you any assistance I can as you move forward with it.
Mari Louise
This is a great post, Andrew! Honest, reflected and increasingly relevant as more and more of us get in touch with and put words to this unease and feeling of being trapped. How do we find the way out? Through openness, sharing what works and growing together 🙂 I’m excited for you on this journey and excited for the lives you will continue to touch through your writing. You have a way with words and communication. Look forward to tagging along on this journey 🙂 ♡
Andrew
Thanks for your comment Mari! I think putting yourself out there and opening up to others is invaluable. Also scary! I’m very excited to get this thing going – half the fun is getting to play around with WordPress! I’m already wondering why I waited so long to teach this to myself.
Chrissy
I am impressed by your positivity! I think this outlook you are proposing is inspirational and I look forward to reading more.
Aaron Dear
Solid manifesto. I have a shorthand way of saying it all: life is all about what you pay attention to.
Move attention away from the trivial and towards the important.
(and, glad to see a new blogger starting the same time I am!)
Andrew
Thanks for the comment, Aaron. Glad you stopped by. I like the way you put it – distills it all down to a simple phrase.